KXTX-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KXTX-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = Telemundo 39
analog = 39 (UHF)
digital = 40 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = Telemundo
network =
founded =
airdate = February 5, 1968
location = Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas
callsign_meaning = X = Christ, or Cross
(reflecting past CBN ownership)
TX = Texas
former_callsigns = KDTV (1968-1973)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = NBC Universal
licensee = NBC Telemundo License Company
sister_stations = KXAS-TV
former_affiliations = Independent
(1968-1995 / 1995-2001)
The WB (1995)
effective_radiated_power = 5000 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 512 m (analog)
494 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 35994
coordinates = coord|32|35|7.3|N|96|58|7.8|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.telemundodallas.com/ www.telemundodallas.com]

KXTX-TV, Channel 39, is the Telemundo O&O in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area. Its transmitter is located in Cedar Hill, Texas.

History

1960s-1970s

The station signed on March 2, 1968 [http://www.knus99.com/tvlist.html] as a business news/general entertainment independent station under the call sign KDTV. Its original owner, Doubleday, later decided to exit the market, and donated its programming and broadcast license to CBN, which already owned channel 33. CBN returned the license for channel 33 to the FCC and combined its existing assets with channel 39. The station changed call letters to KXTX in 1973. (The KDTV calls now reside on a TV station in San Francisco, which is unrelated to KXTX. Interestingly, that station is currently an O&O of Telemundo's chief rival, Univision.) KDTV offered Japanese cartoons dubbed into English including "Speed Racer" and "Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero"

As an independent station, KXTX ranked behind KTVT in the ratings. The station ran cartoons, off-network classic sitcoms, family dramas, old movies, and westerns about twelve hours a day. It also ran religious shows about six hours a day, and all day on Sundays. "The 700 Club", which is produced by CBN, was broadcast three times a day during the week on the station.

1980s

In 1980, KXTX reduced Sunday religious shows from the entire day to 6-10 a.m. and 7 p.m.-Midnight. It also began broadcasting secular shows in the afternoon on Sundays.

For years KXTX was known for its "Western weekends," broadcasting a lineup of classic westerns in the afternoons and early evenings on Saturdays and Sundays. Shows included in the lineup through the years included "The Lone Ranger", "The Rifleman", "Bonanza", "Rawhide", "Alias Smith and Jones", "The Virginian", "Little House on the Prairie", "Gunsmoke", "The Big Valley", and "Have Gun, Will Travel". Movies based on these shows often occupied the weekend evening timeslots. For the last weeks of its English broadcasts, KXTX broadcast a handful of episodes of even older Westerns, such as Jim Bowie, over and over again. After the demise of English broadcasting on KXTX, Westerns in the DFW market found a home for a time on the local PAX-TV (now i network) affiliate.

By 1983, competitors began overextending themselves to get strong programming. Channel 21 (KTXA) was converted into a full time entertainment station. Channel 33 (now KDAF) began to run a strong lineup by 1985. KDFI also became a full time entertainment station in 1984. As a result, KXTX moved away from cartoons and classic sitcoms and more toward westerns, family dramas, and more movies. The station was put up for sale along with other CBN stations, but there were no buyers.

1990s-2000s

The station began broadcasting infomercials by 1990.

By the early 1990s, KXTX was broadcasting mostly paid programming, a few drama shows, westerns, and low budget movies along with some religious programming. In 1993, LIN Broadcasting, which owned KXAS, began managing the station and added some first-run syndicated shows, with Channel 5's newscasts rebroadcast later in the day. WB programming aired on KXTX from January 1995 until July 1995, when KDAF affiliated with the WB network. On October 12, 1996, tragedy struck when an accident by a tower crew (gin pole high ventered) caused the collapse of the 1535 ft. tall tower in Cedar Hill, putting the station, as well as 3 radio stations in the area on temporary and lashed together facilities for many months. KXTX improvised facilities at the nearby tower of KXAS. The FM stations built on one tower or another.

The local marketing agreement between KXTX and KXAS ended in the late 1990s when NBC bought KXAS. The network later bought KXTX in 2001. NBC, which owned Telemundo, made KXTX the market's Telemundo affiliate, while longtime Dallas Telemundo affiliate KFWD-TV became an independent station.

Post-analog shutdown

On February 17, 2009http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , KXTX-TV will shut down its analog station on channel 39 and continue its digital broadcasts on channel 40. [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101234815&formid=387&fac_num=9610 CDBS Print ] ] At the time of KXTX's shutdown of the analog channel 39 signal, KLDT will relocate its digital signal to channel 39.

References

External links

* [http://www.telemundodallas.com/ TelemundoDallas.com - KXTX Homepage]
*TVQ|KXTX-TV
*BIA|KXTX|TV|TV
*TitanTV|KXTX